


This Thing Called Love (I Just Can't Handle It)

by ladyannabethstark



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, F/M, Feelings Realization, Friends to Lovers, Pining, Roommates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-16
Updated: 2017-03-16
Packaged: 2018-10-06 03:30:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10324637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyannabethstark/pseuds/ladyannabethstark
Summary: Clarke Griffin’s ill-timed discovery of her feelings for her roommate, Bellamy Blake, leads to a misunderstanding that confuses the both of them.





	

**Author's Note:**

> this is a gift for bispaceprincess on tumblr, who won one of the categories in my awards

“Here’s the deal,” Clarke said, collapsing onto Bellamy’s bed as he shuffled around getting ready for the day. “Tonight is a good night to stay in and be lazy. So I’m thinking you and me, Chinese takeout, and a Netflix documentary of your choice.”

Bellamy looked over at her as he shrugged on his jacket.

“That’s tempting,” he said with a small smile. “But I can’t tonight.”

Clarke’s own smile faded and she sat up.

“You busy?” she asked.

He nodded as she tried to remember if he’d told her something about tonight. He never worked on Thursday nights, a byproduct at working at his station so long that he was consistently able to request them off.

“I’ll be late so don’t wait up, okay?” Bellamy said.

“Yeah sure,” Clarke nodded, unable to keep from frowning.

He didn’t notice. With a parting muss of her hair that had her shoving him away as he laughed, Bellamy walked out to leave in time for his shift. Clarke stayed there for a while, trying to think about what he could be doing tonight. It wasn’t any of her business, at the end of the day, but she was still curious. Pushing the thoughts aside, Clarke set out to get ready to teach a bunch of eighth grade students how to use a kiln without seriously injuring themselves or others. Little did she know that this was only the beginning of a pattern that lasted nearly a month. Days went by without Clarke seeing Bellamy around during waking hours. Part of her was concerned and the other part was annoyed at all the secrecy and how weird he was acting. If she didn’t know any better, she might think that he was avoiding her.

“Maybe it’s something else,” Raven said when she brought it up over drinks at their favorite bar.

“Like what?” Clarke said, looking over at her. “The last time he was this distant was when we were in college which was not my fault because he was an asshole then.”

“He’s always been a little bit of an asshole, and so have you by the way. You two just realized that your particular talents were better united than divided.”

“You make it sound like we’re enemies who decided to team up to defeat a bigger enemy,” Clarke said with a frown. “And I’m not an asshole.”

Raven simply stared at her without agreeing.

“I’m just saying, maybe there’s something going on that he doesn’t want you to know about.”

Narrowing her eyes, she leaned forward to stare at her friend.

“Do you know something?” Clarke demanded.

“What could I possibly know?” Raven said, doing her best to look innocent.

“You’re with Luna who is best friends with Lincoln who is engaged to Octavia who knows everything about Bellamy. You have an inside source,” she said accusingly.

“You’re usually my inside source,” Raven said with a roll of her eyes. “Tell me that Octavia knows more about Bellamy than you do. I’ll call you a liar and make you buy the next round of drinks.”

Clarke frowned at her but didn’t say anything more. When Gina came over to them with fresh drinks a few minutes later, she got an idea and looked up at the bartender.

“Have you seen Bellamy around here more than usual?” she asked.

Gina thought about it for a moment.

“Not more than usual,” she said, sounding almost too casual about it. “Why?”

“Clarke is convinced that something is going on with him,” Raven interjected.

“Oh. Well I haven’t seen him much at all,” Gina said, gathering their empty glasses before walking off.

Clarke stared after her with narrowed eyes that Raven immediately noticed.

“You think she’s involved too, don’t you?” she sighed.

“She’s a terrible liar,” Clarke said, causing Raven to shake her head. “Bellamy used to bring his dates to this bar all the time, you know? Before it became our group place.”

“So now Bellamy is dating someone,” Raven said, sounding less skeptical than before. “I guess that might be it.”

Clarke took a long drink, her mood going from confused and frustrated to annoyed and even more frustrated.

“Hey, you can’t really blame him. He’s not a mind reader.”

She looked around at Raven with a frown.

“What are you talking about?” Clarke said too quickly, nearly wincing at her defensive tone.

“You never saying anything to Bellamy about how you feel,” Raven said with a shrug.

“I never said anything to anyone,” she said.

“Well maybe that’s the problem.”

Clarke didn’t like how intuitive Raven could be sometimes. Instead of responding, she quickly drank what was left in her glass, which was a considerable amount, before waving Gina down for another. If she couldn’t figure out how to cope with this new information, she’d just make sure she didn’t think about it for the next few hours.

* * *

She still remembered the day that she met Bellamy. It was a hard first impression to forget. While Clarke had been carrying a box of books up to her dorm, he’d been cursing up a storm behind a precariously balanced mini-fridge in his arms. She’d asked if he needed help. He responded in a rather curt tone that he was doing just fine. Clarke made sure to take her time getting off the elevator, he snapped at her, and she called him a jackass. Then they found out that she was his sister’s roommate. For the next four years, they argued, taunted, and stumbled their way into a begrudging friendship that took a surprising turn the day that Octavia convinced them to move in together since they were both in need of a roommate. There were times that Clarke was tempted to move out and dismiss it as a failed experiment.

She was certain that Bellamy had his own moments like that. But they stuck around, even though it was close to miserable sometimes, because they came out better at the end. Clarke wasn’t sure that was going to happen this time. As she sat on her bed mentally calculating her expenses, she knew that she was a lot better off than she’d been fresh out of college with nothing but a very expensive degree in both art and education. Bellamy had only been a firefighter for six months at that point and was still on shaky ground when it came to permanent employment. She could move out if she wanted. Clarke didn’t know that she wanted to, which made her think that she should. She never thought that she’d turn into the pining sort who fell half in love with her best friend and roommate.

Now that she couldn’t deny her feelings anymore, it was hard to face the fact that Bellamy was with someone else. There wasn’t any part of Clarke that wanted to cut him out of her life. Bellamy was there to stay, whether she liked it or not. But some distance would probably help them both in the long run. Then suddenly Bellamy was around again. There were no late night absences and his strange behavior was nearly gone. Clarke knew that he was still keeping something to himself but she was willing to give him time while she put aside her plans to move out. It wasn’t until they were sharing a lunch in the break room at his station one day that she finally let her curiosity overtake her.

“Are you ever going to talk about it?” Clarke asked.

“What?” Bellamy said, the word muffled by the bite of sandwich he had in his mouth.

She waited until he swallowed before answering.

“Your breakup.”

It was the wrong moment to say it, as he sputtered out the water that he’d been drinking and nearly doused their lunch. With a grimace, Clarke pulled her sandwich out of harm’s way and handed him a napkin.

“What breakup?” Bellamy choked out, looking at her questioningly as he wiped his chin.

Clarke simply raised her eyebrows, waiting for him to fess up.

“Do you think I haven’t noticed the weird shit going on? All of the late nights and you constantly avoiding conversation and being strange pretty much all the time?” she asked.

Bellamy didn’t look surprised at her words, though one thing apparently stood out to him.

“You think I was with someone this whole time?” he asked.

“You weren’t?”

He shook his head, turning away to take another long drink of water. Clarke didn’t say anything, surprised that she was wrong. If that wasn’t the case, then there was still a detail missing.

“So what’s been going on? You can talk to me,” she said, feeling more worried than anything else at this point.

“It’s nothing,” Bellamy said, shrugging casually. “I’ve just been working a few shifts at the bar.”

Clarke frowned as his response raised more questions than it answered. If he was working at the bar, which he hadn’t done since college, why didn’t Gina tell them? Did Bellamy want it to be kept a secret? Was he having troubles financially? As far as Clarke knew, he was doing just fine working at the station.

“Do we need to move into a smaller place?” she asked.

It was Bellamy’s turn to look confused.

“Why would we do that?” he asked.

“If they’re cutting your pay here and you’re having a hard time making ends meet, I don’t mind looking for another apartment. I can do without my own bathroom or we can sell our table and get one without a dining room since we always eat in the living room anyway. We can work something out.”

As she talked, Clarke didn’t notice Bellamy’s gaze growing softer as she came up with options until he let out a laugh and shook his head.

“What?” she demanded, frustrated at his response.

“They didn’t cut my pay,” Bellamy assured her.

“Then why are you working extra shifts?”

He hesitated before reaching into his pocket to pull out his wallet. Clarke watched as he pulled out two folded papers that were clearly tickets. When he handed them over, she opened them up and quickly read over the information.

“Bellamy,” she gasped when she realized what he’d done.

He didn’t say anything, even when she looked up at him with wide eyes, a smile already tugging at her lips.

“It’s not a big deal,” Bellamy said, rubbing at the back of his neck as he looked away from her.

“It’s a huge deal. These tickets are crazy expensive,” Clarke said, shaking her head as she looked down again.

She didn’t think that he even remembered her desire to go to a fairly exclusive art gallery opening. Clarke had received the invitation only because of her mother’s connections but she knew that she couldn’t afford even a single ticket on her teacher’s salary. And here Bellamy was with two of them after hearing her mention the event in passing.

“I only worked a few extra shifts,” he said, still trying to shrug it off as nothing.

“You worked overtime for a month, Bellamy,” she said, shaking her head at him. “I can’t believe you did this.”

He finally met her gaze, a wary look in his eyes.

“What do you say?” he asked.

“Yes, of course,” Clarke breathed, grinning at him.

He looked relieved, smiling as well as he let out a breath he must have been holding. It was at that moment that Clarke realized every time he’d stayed out until the early hours of the morning and then woke up for his shift at the station without complaint, it was all for her. Reaching out, she put her hand on his cheek and stroked her thumb over his freckled skin before leaning in to kiss him. Bellamy didn’t respond for a moment and Clarke was briefly afraid that she’d misread the entire situation. Then he was weaving his hand through her hair and pulling her closer, deepening the kiss. He’d nearly pulled her onto his lap when they heard a knock on the doorframe.

“Break’s over Blake,” Miller said as they pulled apart and looked around at him with wide eyes.

He was smirking, clearly amused that he interrupted him.

“I can cover if you need a few more minutes,” Miller offered, gesturing to the window. “You know that these blinds close, right?”

“Fuck off,” Bellamy said, throwing a used napkin his way.

It didn’t make it far but Miller’s laughter reached their ears as he walked away. When Clarke looked back at Bellamy, he was staring at her with wonder in his eyes.

“I didn’t plan it just for this,” he said, gesturing between them.

“Yeah yeah,” Clarke said with a doubtful shake of her head before giving him another brief kiss.

Once he helped her stand and they gathered the trash together to throw it away, Bellamy decided to walk her to her car. When his arm found its way around her shoulders, she didn’t hesitate to lean into his side.

“So I’ll pick you up at eight tomorrow?” he asked, smirking at her with all of his bravado back in place.

“We live together,” Clarke said with a laugh, shoving at his shoulder.

“So my commute will be short, then,” he said, cradling her face in his hands as he leaned down to steal one more kiss.

Pulling away after a few moments, Clarke sorted out the mess her hands made of his already messy hair and nodded at him.

“Go save lives, Blake.”

“Yes ma’am,” he said, nodding in return.

Watching him jog away, Clarke couldn’t help but smile to herself as she got in her car before pulling out her phone to tell Raven everything. As it turned out, her friend wasn’t right. Clarke didn’t always know everything about Bellamy but she certainly didn’t mind the surprise this time.

**Author's Note:**

> I would love to hear what you think!


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